rabbitstew

I nearly bought one just before I bought my zed, prices then were about 8k for a phase 1 and 10->12k for a phase 2. Like you say, the prices have rocketed since then. I read a lot of reviews on them and watched loads of videos at the time. They are really all about the madness of being a rear engined clio, rather than actual performance and handling. I remember when they first came out and everyone was shocked that they were slower than a Renault 5 GTT which could have spaceship performance for little cash. But the mental pumped up aggressive steroid looks of the clio v6 is what really attracted me to them.

It looks like your zed is an older one, but I had a 370z for a week whilst my 350z HR was with Nissan for some work. The sales guy basically gave me their new 370z demo car which was fully spec`d up. I seem to recall the price he took out of the screen was something like £36k, although it was a good few years back now. He was convinced he`d get me to "upgrade". I just didnt like it at all. It`s styling looked longer and narrower than the 350z when in reality its the other way around. My 350z HR felt quicker, more responsive and just a much better driving experience. The only area I really did like of the 370z was the interior. It made my facelifted 350z look very dated. Also the multi-media system was miles better than the ancient bose sat nav in my 350z. So for me, the move from a 350zHR to a 370z wasnt worth it. But from an older 350z you might notice a huge difference. Its all a personal thing though. Test drive a couple, you may love them or hate them!

Its amazing what some car dealers will try and get away with. I remember looking at a mk4 golf when I was looking at golfs and one was up as a GT TDI 150 and yet HPi/Car details check was showing it was clearly a 110bhp version as they didnt make the 150 until years later. Opening the bonnet and you could see extremely bad welding on the front chassis. Someone had used an arc welder to try and weld it all back up after an accident. Must have been a very nasty front accident from the looks of it. I saw another car where the chasis number looked like it was stamped on by a 5 year old, all over the shop. Cars with dodgy shut lines & ripples in the roof. All sorts. The Golf GT TDI I ran for 4 years, had 179k on the clock when I sold it but looked mint. I checked up on it online a few years back and it was still running but only showing 110k miles on the clock! I could see from the MOT history (which only went back online to the year after I sold it) that it must have been clocked back down to 70k literally straight after I sold it so someone is driving around in it probably not realising its done over 100k more than they think. At least now with the online check you can check back for a good few years. Sad thing is, some people have no idea what to check when they buy a car and would probably think they are getting a bargain.

Totally agree with the above. The only time I get to enjoy my car is on my daily commute, hence I use my 997 turbo as my daily. Like you say, its guaranteed ME TIME.

Ive not noticed any negativity since I bought my Porsche back in May. You do get lots and lots and lots (and i mean LOTS) of attention though. Blokes seem to stop and stare at it. People will nearly crash their cars as they are too busy looking at it...... Had to add to this that some woman did actually crash her new Audi Q3 last night whilst reversing and staring at my Porsche at the same time. I stood there and watched as she literally reversed straight back into a lamp post. She wasnt even remotely looking where she was going as she was transfixed by my car. Mad!

My head hurts...

Aha I was tempted with that kinda plate too but was a bit more than 300quid!

I cant afford to insure 2 cars, so use my main daily all year around. Luckily we dont get much snow usually these days, but I remember one year driving home from work in my zed in the snow and realising that it had been snowing heavier & heavier the closer I got to home. Ended up following in some trucks tire marks at 30mph most of the way home. Nearly didnt get back into my road & onto the drive as I live on a hill, but managed to just about carry on enough momentum to get onto my drive (albeit sideways). Car then ended up sitting there for 2 days as I couldnt get off the drive due to the snow. Im hoping my current daily will be a bit better with 4wd.

From experience, make the most of things now as once baby arrives you will have zero time ever again. Say goodbye to any social life, workouts, hobbies & interests as your whole life will revolve around dirty nappies and feeding every couple of hours through the night. Even when the little one is a couple of years old you still wont have a break as they will want you to play with them etc... Im looking forward to when mine leave home and I can get my life back again. Albeit I will be too old by then to do anything. When mine arrived, I did something similar, sold the wifes car off and got her a "sensible" Nissan Juke. Loads of room inside, and allowed me to keep a "fun" car. However, as I have to drop the little one off to nursery each morning, the 2 seater zed went, to be replaced by something with 4 seats.

They are nice cars. I ran a Golf GT TDI for 4 years and 100k miles, was still getting up to 73mpg out of it on my daily commute when I sold it. 72mpg seems unreal now compared to the 24mpg im getting out of my current daily.

Some good advice on this thread and its great to see so many people happy to help. I wish id been on a forum like this back when I went through something similar. When I went through the same sort of thing, i found that keeping myself busy was the way forward. Id lost contact with all of my old friends and the only "friends" id had for the last few years were through my ex and so when we split I instantly lost all my friends. Fortunately I reached out to an old friend and re-ignited that friendship, and just hanging out with him and talking about things really helped. He had been through similar in the past and id helped him out, and now it was his turn. Just getting out of the house & doing something helped. It didnt take my mind off things, but it was a distraction for a bit. When I was stuck at home, id watch endless amounts of movies. They helped distract me for a couple of hours each time until I was tired enough to try and sleep. One of the biggest problems I had was blaming myself for what had happened. Im not sure why as I did nothing wrong. My ex used me, then ran off back to her abusive ex boyfriend. What really bugged me is that I ended a really good long term relationship to be with my ex, (I gave in to temptation) so I blamed myself for that and blamed myself for my ex leaving me. And for me also it was the not knowing what the "real" reason was for it not working out. My ex just didnt tell me. She gave the usual "i love you so much, its me, not you, theres noone else etc.." sort of excuse which left me completely in the dark as to why. Id have been happier (to some degree) if she was just honest and said that she was going back to her ex. So blaming myself and searching for a reason as to why she left me seemed to fill all my spare time for a long time. Even now, many years later I still find myself thinking about things and have never really been able to fully let go. But time does move on and eventually things do get easier. They may never get 100% better, but they will be a lot better than they are now! 34 is young mate. Most of my mates were only just leaving home around that age, and most didnt get married until they hit 40.

Mine was the same. Moved from an extremely busy city main road which saw an accident happen outside my house once every few months, to a very quiet cul-de-sac in a quiet pensioner town only to find my insurance went up as the new post code was a "higher risk" - simply because it included some dodgy areas in the next town. What I usually do is to just have a play on confused.com. One year adding my 90 year old granny dropped my premium on my zed. Quite why they felt she was a safer risk than me I dont know. But then last year, removing any oldies from my policy actually reduced it. Changing job title increased it. Saying I was married rather than co-habiting increased it. Saying I parked it in the road and not on my drive reduced the premium. Changing from third party only to fully comp reduced it. Just have a play!

Its worth remembering you can haggle with sky. This last 2 years ive had the full HD sky+ family pack, with movies etc. and im paying just £18.99 a month for it. Did have my broadband through them as well which was unlimited 20mb for about a fiver a month including line rental. However I have just switched that to 50mb BT Infinity which after cashback deals etc they are actually paying me £9 a month to have their broadband. I have freeview in the bedroom & a WD box in there for streaming and apps. I do have kodi on my media pc but seldom use it. Did get a amazon fire box which is great as we take it on holiday with us so the kids can watch cartoons etc by just plugging it into the telly where we are staying.

I have samsung smart things at home, had it for ages now. I mainly use it with hidden wireless door sensors on all the entry doors to the house & some motion sensors just to alert me as to whats going on. Not got around to linking it to light bulbs or that kind of thing yet. I have got a presence sensor which I can leave in the wifes car so I know when shes home or not. Quite funny getting an alert to say shes just pulled in the drive before she`s even put her key in the front door - gives me chance to hide anything she shouldnt see before she walks in. When on holiday its handy as you know exactly what time people arrive and go. The cat feeding woman we use when on holiday was there each day for exactly the amount of time she said she would. However, the cleaner who claimed she used to do 2 hours a day was actually only doing 1hr 30, but still charging us for the full amount. I have also got the outside floodlights connected to it, so I can hit a button on my phone and the entire garden and drive light up like theres been a prison break. You can add pretty much anything to it, like lights which come on as soon as you open your front door, or even have a digital door lock so as soon as it detects your phone is in the area it unlocks your front door etc... vibration sensor on the washing machine to tell you when its finished etc... all pretty costly though, so ive not ventured into doing too much.

Nice!!!!

This is my daily beater. Do about 90 miles a day in it.

I use the low profile halfords jack. Cost next to nothing in their 50% of sale a while back. I like how you can have the handle at any angle when you jack the car up.

I remember seeing that story in the papers at the time!

Happens all the time unfortunately. When I dropped my zed off to have some work at the local Nissan (I never took it back again), the mechanic promptly drove it into the workshop and sat there rev`ing the hell out of my engine in order to hear the full effect of the K1 exhaust I had on it. Unfortunately for him, he didnt realise I was waiting and watching through the workshop window. It was only when the Service Manager clocked me looking and looking very angry that he promptly shat himself and ran over and told the mechanic to stop it. The mechanic later then came out, cap in hand, and gave me a grovelling apology. My ex`s scumbag ex boyfriend used to work for Honda and he actually wrote off a customers Type-R on a "test drive". I even remember many years back my brother dropped his 205 Gti off to have some brake pads done at a local garage. He went to pick it up later and there was no sign of his car. He then heard the sound of a car being thrashed to 1 inch of its life down the local by pass, and hey presto it turned into the garage and he was his car. "just testing the new brakes" apparently. This is one reason why I now do all my mechanical work myself as I just dont trust anyone.

Dont they reskin doors these days?! Glad its all sorted though!

Did you see any Fiats though in Italy?! One thing ive noticed though on my various trips to Italy is that I never saw a car without any damage/scratches/dents on it. Even Porsches etc. Seems its perfectly normal over there.

This is what i do. Admiral has been cheapest for my daily last few years. But it does tend to vary.

Can you get remoulds in the zed sizes?! (only joking!)

I think id keep the 350.

That was a good call. I didnt start a family until I hit 40 and now when I want to relax and have time to myself im stuck with 2 kids to look after and the prospect that they wont leave home until im retired. Im quite envious of mates who had kids when they were in their early 20`s and now their kids have left home and my mates are free to do whatever they want to do. However, I just wasnt in the situation back when I was in my early 20`s to have kids. I always figured id wait until I had a house, was married and financially stable to "afford" to have kids.